Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Deadly Cool isn't Gemma's first novel, but it is her first in a teen series and what a start it was. Again, this wasn't a typical book that I've read and reviewed for this blog, but it's always good to try new things.

When Hartley learns that her boyfriend Josh cheated on her, she wants to confront him about it. Unable to get ahold of him, she goes to his house. But instead of finding Josh, she finds the girl he'd cheated on her with, Courtney... dead.

Hartley knows Josh would never kill anybody and when he asks her to help prove his innocence, she doesn't have any choice but to do just that. The only problem is another girl turns up dead and Hartley is the one who finds her. Will she be able to find out who the killer is before she because the latest victim?

From the very first line it's clear that this story is going to be humorous and snarky. Hartley has a sarcastic sense of humor and finds herself in the strangest of situations throughout the story. I enjoyed the fact that the humor and wit were consistent throughout, even when referring to her mother the "SMother" and the "eco friendly" car that her best friend's brother lets them borrow.

You are also left wondering until the end just who it could have been. Courtney was popular, but not well liked and there were tons of people who could have had the motive to kill her. Even the editor of their high school's paper, Chase, who had offered to help Hartley had the opportunity to do it. Just who could it have been?

One of the things I really liked though was that even though Hartley still cared about Josh and found herself wanting to go back to him, she didn't. He apologized and tried to make things right, but Hartley wasn't going to give him another chance. She stuck to her guns and stayed strong.

All in all it was a fun and light read and Hartley was a funny character. I'm definitely interested to find out what kind of trouble she finds herself in with the sequel "Social Suicide". For more information on this book and the other series that Gemma's written you can check out her site http://www.gemmahalliday.com.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

So this week we are going to be joined by the author of debut novel Elemental Reality, Cesya Cuono. She's going to discuss the legends and myths used for her novel.

Legends or myths behind the elements used (if there's a specific one she used or one she made up for the story):

I definitely wanted my characters to be unique for possessing the earthly elements. I researched the different elements and read all the legends and myths behind them. I even went as far as researching their color, symbol, and meaning but nothing stuck out as to how these elements would make my characters unique. Some legends of the elements involve a fifth one: spirit. At first, that was going to be the fifth element I was going to use to create the Alkuaine Faerie (Callie and Lola) but no matter how I wrote about it I wasn’t impressed with the outcome.

Other legends have the elements of earth, fire, water, metal, and wood. I immediately crossed that out because I thought wood went along with earth. And trying to figure out a power that could be used for metal wasn’t working in my brain. So was born the fifth element electricity. As far as the elements colors, I kept earth yellow because I found the perfect explanation for it. The other colors I made up because water, wind, and electricity would have all had the same color. Blue. I wanted the element colors to be bright and vibrant.

Though you hear about the symbols that are scarred on Callie’s arm, you never actually get a picture of them. Why you ask? Because they currently are symbol-less. I don’t want to copy an already thought-out symbol because it would take away their uniqueness. These symbols have to be awesome and match the world I created in Elemental Reality. The last thing I want the element symbols to look like is plain. They need to have life. Seem real by design. But there’s a lot of research that needs to be done when it comes to creating my own symbols. I have to make sure whatever I draw up doesn’t have negative meaning in other religions. It should be fun creating them and once they’re done I’ll post them on my blog (www.cesyacuonobooks.blogspot.com) for my fans to get a good visual of them.

Thank you so much for joining us here at A Trail Of Books Cesya and I hope you guys enjoyed getting a little insight into the world she created. Be sure to check back here for my review that will be posted on Elemental Reality.